Blood, Sweat and Tears

by Stephanie Fry

If waiting was a sport I would have gone pro. I endured countless Two Week Waits during my time battling infertility. Now I am waiting again, but for a different kind of baby. My book. The IVF Journal.

This book, this decade long project that is so close to my heart, took nearly ten years to complete. The best way I can sum up most of those years is with three words: Blood, sweat and tears.

If you are doing IVF or have been through treatment, you know what I’m talking about.

Vial, after vial, after vial of blood. Arms, stomach and thighs looking like pin cushions. Feeling numb. Being numb.

Pools of sweat. Lupron sweat. So much sweat that you have to sleep on towels. Sweating in waiting rooms, sweating as you stare at your cell waiting for it to ring with results. Sweating as you walk into another baby shower.

Tears. More Tears. Too many tears to count. Too many reasons to cry.

In just two short weeks The IVF Journal will become a part of the experience of IVF patients all over the country and the world.

I have so many hopes for these women.

“My hope is that The IVF Journal becomes a positive part of your IVF experience; one that helps to reduce stress and allows you to better understand your specific situation. I hope it will help you to ask informed questions, make informed decisions and become a more confident participant in your medical care. I hope it will provide you with a personalized way to organize, store, and evaluate the information that is important and relevant to you.

As it has for me, I hope using The IVF Journal makes your journey clearer and less difficult. I hope it provides you with a sense of calm, clarity, and control by providing you with the opportunity and the tools to fully participate in a process that can often feel very chaotic and beyond your control.

I hope it provides a productive way to pass the time while you wait for a cycle to start, or as you pass the hours in waiting room after waiting room. I hope it becomes something positive to focus on as you wait for the next instruction call, administer the next shot, get through the retrieval, wait for the fertilization report, go through the transfer and, of course, as you wait and wait for the results.

The IVF Journal is your book; not mine, and not your doctors’. Nor is it the latest and greatest in advice on how to get and stay pregnant. This book is meant to serve as your guide, one that will allow you to write your own story, on your own terms, in your own words.

Throughout this journey, remember: just attempting a cycle—whether canceled or completed, negative or positive—is a feat that takes strength, courage and an amazing amount of discipline and time. All that you endure, and the massive personal and family effort that goes into an IVF cycle, is always something to take great pride in.